Get dirty!

Various studies have shown the value of being exposed to dirt. People who grow up on farms have lower rates of Crohn’s disease, asthma and allergies than those who live elsewhere. In a Finnish experiment, children attending a day care center where the surrounding yard was a “forest floor” had stronger immune systems and a healthier microbiome than those whose daycare yard consisted of gravel. What’s more, the forest floor children continued to harbor beneficial gut and skin bacteria two years later.

Scientists are increasingly discovering how broad a role dirt microbes play in our mental and physical health. One soil-dwelling bacterium, called Mycobacterium vaccae, has an anti-inflammatory effect on our brains, possibly both lowering stress and improving our immune response to it. When we’re touching soil or even just out in nature, “we’re breathing in a tremendous amount of microbial diversity,” according to one scientist. A clay deposit in Canada has been found to contain powerful antibiotics, solutions of which can kill 16 different strains of multi-drug-resistant bacteria.

In a 2016 blogpost I mention other health benefits of dirt. Some pregnant women crave it and eat it. For one thing, it strengthens both the mother's and child's immune systems. It is also supplies the minerals needed to fulfill a pregnant woman's increased demands. (This is particularly true for a white clay called kaolin.) Clay absorbs toxins and contains the same antacid compounds found in Maalox and Rolaids. 

A company called AOBiome sells a spray-on tonic that contains billions of cultivated Nitrosomonas eutropha, an ammonia-oxidizing bacteria that is commonly found in dirt. They act as a built-in cleanser, deodorant, anti-inflammatory and immune booster. It once lived happily on us too before we started washing it away with soap and shampoo.

It’s easy enough to be exposed to dirt. If you want to eat it, you can order kaolin clay from the internet. Enjoy!

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Dangers of polypharmacy (taking many medications)

About one in five adults is taking five or more prescription drugs. The older the patients, the more likely they’re taking even more than that. Studies have shown that polypharmacy is associated with a faster decline in memory, greater risk of falls, excessive bleeding, dangerously low blood sugar, and other complications. More than 6 percent of all hospital admissions are because of adverse reactions to medications. For people over 65, it’s more like 12 percent. 

Prescriptions pile up for several reasons: people see a variety of providers who may not be communicating with one another; they’re prescribed drugs to counteract the side effects of other drugs; they’re not taken off drugs they no longer need. (In Salman Rushdie’s book, Knife, which describes his horrific stabbings, he says he was given meds to raise his blood pressure. Months later he was alarmed at his high blood pressure, which, he later discovered, was caused by his still being on the BP-raising meds. Duh.)

Speaking of side effects, Scientific American published an article about the increased risk of dementia for those taking Benadryl for a long time. Benadryl is an over-the-counter medication for allergy relief. Its active ingredient, diphenhydramine, is used in many allergy, cold, and anti-itch drugs. This ingredient is an anticholinergic: it blocks the action of acetylcholine—a chemical that carries messages from your brain to your body through nerve cells. As stated in a National Health Service publication, “More than 600 medications possess some level of anticholinergic activity, and except in the case of a few drugs, experts generally consider the anticholinergic properties to be the cause of adverse rather than therapeutic effects.” Ack!

As to medications in general, you can see a list of “potentially inappropriate medications” for older adults on the Cleveland Clinic’s website. The list is called the Beers Criteria. It’s long.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Blood pressure meds

Various blood pressure medications work in different ways:

• Removes fluid by making you pee more, which lowers the amount of fluid flowing through veins and arteries. These are diuretics, such as hydrochlorothiazide.
• Slows down the heart by blocking the action of hormones, such as adrenaline. These are beta blockers, such as metoprolol.
• Relaxes and widens the blood vessels, so your heart doesn’t have to pump as hard. These include both ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors, such as lisinopril, and calcium channel blockers, such as amlodipine.

“Normal” blood pressure is supposedly 120/80. (The top number is the pressure when your heart is beating; the bottom number is the pressure when your heart is at rest.) But blood pressure is higher in older people because our vessels are less elastic, so the “rules” for old people—over age 65—are a bit more relaxed (130/80). Nevertheless, 80 percent of us elderly are considered to have high blood pressure (hypertension).

Blood pressure numbers can be all over the place, depending on what you’re up to. Mine is always very high in medical environments— “white coat syndrome.” (Stress releases adrenaline and cortisol that tighten blood vessels and cause retention of salt.) I don’t normally take blood pressure meds, but I’ve taken them prior to medical procedures, such as knee replacements, to keep people from freaking out.

Because white coat syndrome is common and because older people naturally have higher than "normal" blood pressure, it’s estimated that around 25 percent of people are taking blood pressure meds that they don’t need. To get a better picture of your blood pressure, it’s best to take it at home at different times of the day. (You'll have to buy a monitor if you don't already have one.) Also try slow, deep breathing and see how it changes your blood pressure. You can do science experiments! 

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Ignore nutrition studies

I ignore nutrition studies, especially when they demonize red meat and saturated fat. The information is not trustworthy. The problem is that there are multiple ways to analyze data. Researchers are often looking for results that are publishable. For this reason, they can easily make decisions—consciously or subconsciously—to get the results they want.

The problem is “analytical flexibility.” An analytical survey can involve hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions about how best to conduct an analysis. Different decisions about analyzing data can produce different answers: one set of criteria will be associated with an increased risk of a particular disease; a different set of criteria can yield the opposite conclusion.

A group of researchers, called “methodologists,” at McMaster University in Canada and Stanford University are looking at how the strategies and analytical decisions chosen by researchers might influence the results of studies. In one case, the methodologists reviewed 15 studies that were trying to determine whether the consumption of red meat is associated with premature death. In those 15 studies, the methodologists identified 70 different analytical strategies, and 1,208 possible combinations of analytic choices. Using sophisticated mathematical techniques, they then determined how the analytical techniques chosen might influence the results. Depending on the choices made, the results showed wildly different outcomes: 435 concluded that red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of premature death; 773 led to the opposite conclusion: the more red meat consumed, the longer people lived.

As far as I’m concerned, it makes sense to avoid red meat for ecological reasons, but not for fear of an early death.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.